Stay on target

While we’re not really on board with claims of “breaking the Internet,” Kim Kardashian West has a knack for getting people’s attention. Most recently, this came on Twitter when in a response to somebody’s comment about her “pink hair and funky fits” she announced that she was “obsessed with anime.”

The reaction from fandom has been… not great. While Jordan’s love of anime has been met with some light mockery (compounded by the fact that dude still lives in the same house as his parents), Kardashian is getting it a lot harder.

This pushback against mainstream celebrities being into anime illustrates one of the greatest weaknesses of the geek community – our tendency to be exclusive in a negative way. The implication that Kardashian is a “fake geek girl” who can’t name five anime series that she watches is a classic example of something that’s been happening for years, as self-declared gatekeepers of a fandom struggle to come to terms with its expanding popularity.

We’ve seen it happen with comic books, as ranting YouTube men bluster about unqualified “diversity hires” even as Marvel movies soar to the top of the box office. We’ve seen it happen with video games as female streamers get excoriated by anonymous commenters who aren’t satisfied with their skills or cleavage. It’s not surprising that anime would have the same idiotic backlash brewing.

But why shouldn’t Kim K. like anime? She grew up with it, just like we all did. Sailor Moon hit American screens in 1995. Just because she’s rich doesn’t mean she got different cartoons on TV as a kid. She’s a globetrotter deeply plugged into world cultural trends. It would be more surprising at this point if she didn’t know what it was. Just because you don’t like her – and there are plenty of valid reasons not to – is no excuse to assume that she’s ignorant.

One of the most frustrating holdovers in geek culture is the myth of scarcity. In the pre-digital days, getting ahold of anime often meant ordering it through the mail, often subtitled by fans from grainy VHS dubs. Finding back issues of comics meant digging through longboxes hoping to strike gold. And video games didn’t steam themselves right to your PC. Physical media was limited, and if somebody else got it it often meant you didn’t.

That scarcity is gone. Media can be duplicated infinitely in the digital era, and it’s only a matter of time before even the most obscure anime series hits a streaming service or a torrent. The only limit to fandom now is enthusiasm – if you like something enough, you can find it. And plenty of people are.

Husband Kanye West has also expressed his love for Japanese cartoons, once tweeting that Akira was one of his two favorite movies (the other was There Will Be Blood). The list of rappers who don’t like anime is probably longer than those who do. Jaden Smith voiced the lead character on Netflix’s Neo Yokio and Lil Yachty sampled Cowboy Bebop. The cool kids like anime, and have for quite some time. Anime has been pop culture for decades. This great piece by Gita Jackson at Kotaku on Dragon Ball‘s resonance in the Black community is another example.

Fans of a cultural product naturally assume that other fans are like them – that they share the same ideas, opinions and background. But anime is way beyond that now. It’s a truly global phenomenon that’s mutated and evolved, and the audience has come with it.

Geek’s editor-in-chief, Sheilah Villari sent me an interview she conducted with LeSean Thomas, the producer on shows like The Legend of Korra and The Boondocks. Here he talked about how “When it becomes bigger than their secret, then they feel like they have to be defensive, because they feel like they’re losing it… Meanwhile, nobody in Japan gives a f*ck about any of this stuff; they’re like ‘whatever, Frozen is anime.”

Anime is for everyone, no matter how deep you’re into it. Maybe Kim’s only seen Sailor Moon, or maybe she’s maxed out her Crunchyroll bandwidth. It shouldn’t matter either way.

A rising tide lifts all butts… I mean boats. Increased public attention to anime means more people will watch it, which will inspire studios to make more of it. If you’re a real fan, that’s the outcome you should want anyways. The creators of anime series didn’t ask you to decide who can enjoy them and who can’t. They want their work to be seen by everybody from the weebiest otaku to the beefiest jock. And if a Kardashian inspires some fan in the midwest to stream a cartoon she’s never watched before, that’s a win.